Study on the Flow Dynamics of Nitrogen and Hydrogen Gasses Subjected to Wires Element in Monolithic Microchannel

The former method to produce ammonia (NH3) was not sustainable and unenvironmentally friendly since the process required high energy consumption as well as high operating condition. The advanced of technology for the past few decades have enabled the production of NH3 to occur in the ambient condition. The technique to achieve high yield of NH3 is illustrated under nanotechnology and the Magnetic Induction Method (MIM) where induced magnetic fields polarizes the hydrogen (H2) and nitrogen (N2) gasses in the monolithic microchannel to allow the synthesis of NH3. Previous study showed that chaotic advection was successfully induced when wires are arranged axially in different manners along the microreactor. Hence to further enhance the rate of reaction, design of the monolithic microchannel is improved. Therefore, wires elements with different configurations are introduced in this research where they are arranged in 300 and 900 pitch with different distance and number of wires in the monolithic microchannel to analyse the flow dynamic of H2 and N2. This simulation investigated the result of mixing index with effect of distance between centre of wires, effect of number of wires and effect of wire pitch with the production of ammonia. Based on the result obtained, the square pitch geometry with 13 wires is perceived to produce the most effective dynamic mixing. The development and design of the five monolithic microchannels are prepared via a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach using the software ANSYS 15.0 coupled with CFX module.